Reply to comment

That's the year I got it below the belt.....I am 40 now. I had the summer and fall planned out that year. I was to work the summer at a sweet little yacht club in a harbor on the Maine coast. In the fall I was already enrolled in massage therapy school in NY and planned to use that as the foundation for a future career in acupuncture.

So, it was required for me to have a physical exam prior to my studies. I'm at the doctors office in town and had simply pointed out the little red bumps I had on my penis recently. I had been dating a cute little gal named Diana who I met working in Maine. She was up there for the summer too. She was from Connecticut. We had an amazing love affair together. Maine is so quaint. Making love on the boat or on an uninhabited island in the middle of the day on the warm soft rocks. That romance was almost worth the price I paid in getting genital herpes that wonderful summer. Good times.

Now what I have learned all these years is that anyone in the know will tell you "you'd be surprised how many people have it". That being said, the key has been in how herpes is managed. A huge deal is that there are different strains of 1 and 2. Some severe, some less so. Some people have zero symptoms.

In my world, Diana did not know she had it. We actually broke up after I moved to NY and went studied. But we parted friends. I forgave her, and believed her when she swore she did not know she had it. So love prevailed, not negativity. There has only been one potential partner in my life, and recently at that, who said she knew nothing about herpes. She actually freaked out at the fact that I had to tell (yes my own requirement, as it should be for anyone in this case) a potential partner that I have herpes. That was 2 months ago. Single life is ok for a while after that experience.

I have managed to never pass this to any of my lovers over the years. My most recent partner had genital herpes too, and 1 year into our 2 year connection she gets a sore on her lip. Her first ever outbreak of oral herpes. We're like, wtf is this all about? L-Lysene cream, H-Balm and acyclovir is what that was all about. Like, lets get that thing off your face honey. It's really sad, because its like right there on your lip of all places. Nice to meet you, you have something gross on your face!

You always learn something new about how people manage this dis-ease. I have heard this could be called a disease that may get you to think more about your health than before you actually had it. A weakened immune system, depression or feelings of loss, lack of nutrition all get this disease active.

My trip is, this makes you live as healthy a lifestyle as you can so you don't get outbreaks. Exercise, eating whole foods, thinking good thoughts (ever see the move....what the bleep do we know?) well its all tied together. I have personally used suppressive therapy with acyclovir only when I know the virus has become active. Only after I feel a little extra run down and notice the telltale "ache" in my leg from my lymph glands kicking in. Then I pop 400mg 1-2 times a day for about 5-7 days. Usually keeps it from getting to the surface of the skin. The idea being, don't become dependent on the drug. Allow your body to operate mainly on immune response and not solely on a a viral replication blocker. Outbreaks for me are now about 2 -3 per year + -

Just thought I would add my piece of the puzzle in here since what I was reading from these recent posts in here. I simply stumbled on this blog during a short session of searching out progress on a vaccine, which sounds like only bs is happening. The compassionate art of healing does not blend well with pharma companies eager to collect on peoples monthly dependence on drugs that "ease" the problem but don't seek to cure it. If we were all cured the simple equation for them is we lose all of our customer base on suppressive therapy.

I will echo the masses......hey, ya bunch of pharma yo-yo's, release the cure for this thing already and go after the big dick pill customers. There seems to be a "shortage" that needs a few more strokes out there! lol